Search This Blog
▸ est. 2021◂
◦ afaruki.com ◦
↳ I'm Ayesha. I like to write about my hobbies. 👋
Featured
My Writing Process
A lot of people have asked how I start a writing project, and how I stick to it throughout the whole ride. My younger self often wanted to write a chapter book or a whole novel, but usually, I only made it until Chapter 4 before I lost interest or had no idea what I was doing. I've tried to compile all of the steps I usually take for my longer writing projects, and I analyzed a bunch of things that I did while writing my first two novels while continuing my third.
1. The Idea
Everything begins with an idea, whether it's a novel, short story, essay, poem, or anything in between. It might just be something basic -- a twist on a plot you know well, a character you'd think you'd like to see, or an outline of the world you want to make.
In my case, for Whisper, it was part of the world and its people. The idea presented itself in the method of the last sentence in Chapter 10: "I had a dream."
My dreams are pretty exciting, and this one was interesting enough to plan out a 5-book series. It sparked the entrance exam scene with the dragons because that was exactly what the dream was about -- almost detail to detail. I woke up in an Arena, with crowds of chattering people in the stands all around me. I felt the pain, saw Anastasia's taunts, and when I woke up, I just knew I had to get it down on paper.
2. Characters
After I get the basic idea of what I'm going to be writing about, I get the characters together -- usually, the characters come along with the idea, or the characters are the ideas themselves. However, I need to develop them more and bring side characters and an enticing antagonist. I give them things like a face, a voice, different strengths and weaknesses, an ethnicity, and a backstory, even if it isn't revealed in the storyline (or yet, at least).
Character development has been something I struggled with for a while, and I think that now has been when I've gotten better at it, while still not perfect. They're the center of the doodles in my journals and I create short stories of them interacting. I try to find a way to make them better relate to the main idea and the story themselves.
3. Setting & Basic Plot
Admittingly, I'm not the best at plotting. I always want to go heads-in at the action, and get out my pencils in pens (or, in reality, my computer, and start typing.) Even though, I try to give it a basic structure -- where's the character now? Are they in this new world yet? If they're not, where are they, and when are they going to get there?
Based on these questions, I get to a small plotline -- not something big or grand yet, just a rough idea, and maybe only for a little bit or so. For Whisper, this was me figuring out where the book's starting off and how it gets into the action, and how that action unfolds a series of new scenarios. I figure out those scenarios, and then I get to the point.
4. Starting Off
To be honest, I should never start off this early without the big idea or the main plot. But plotting to me comes more as a task, and it gets boring sitting there and brainstorming. I use starting off with the first couple of chapters as motivation -- I use what I've got so far to make more. I add some things to that basic plot structure as I write, to add a bit of creativity, and then I branch off those things to make a bigger skeleton of the story. I try to make sure everything relates to each other, and how one incident creates another.
5. Hardcore Plotting
I've got the first couple of chapters done. The characters and setting are established. The plot is rolling forward, and the rising action is continuing. Typically, I have an idea for the main conflict in the major idea -- however, I don't know how I relate it to everything else, nor what I have planned for the climax. This is where I usually take a small break from writing and decide on how to relate everything I've got so far. I have the rest of the plot done, with the climax and the rest of the plot elements clear. In Whisper, this was also the time when I rubbed my hands together and planned for the rest of the books (just a basic idea and maybe a basic plot for the earlier ones) making sure to reveal just the right things at the right times so that when the reader gets further into the story, they'd have that "Aha" moment.
6. Writing... and It's Done!
This is for sure the most interesting part of this entire process -- at least for me. I get down everything I want to and need to, as well as add a couple of things in -- I don't necessarily stick to script. If something in my plot seems like it has a hole in it, I fix that now. Even though I don't exactly plan what I have down in each chapter, I give myself more creative liberties here, ending chapters and scenes when I want to, and connecting them how I'd like.
Ending the first draft of the novel or story is probably the most satisfying thing I could ever feel. There's so much closure, and I have to make sure I end it just right, with sequel potential, and with revealing just enough, but still having the reader feel like they need to seek a little bit more. When I finished Whisper, it was the best feeling in the world -- but even when I did, I was like, "Woah. That's... that's it." After a year of development, it was done.
7. Putting It Down
There was a very large gap between when I finished Whisper to when I picked it up again for a re-read. It's good to have a fresh mind before you think about it again. I even started writing some chapters of Passage, the next book, to get my mind off of it.
8. And... Oops, My Mistake. It's Not Done.
Most young and new authors (look at me going on and talking about a young and new author when I'm one myself...), including this one right here, make the mistake of thinking that once you're done writing, you're done altogether. But oh, no, no, no. I was in for a ride.
I started to process of re-reading, editing a little bit, and re-writing mostly all of it (yes, re-writing). Sometimes I only got to Chapter 10 before I went, "No, no, this is all wrong. Start again!" and the process continued for around 4-5 times. Entire chapters were taken out (because, admittingly, I wrote way more than I should have), and most of it was re-written. Characters were changed in some ways, and I polished up the plot to make sure everything fit and had relevance to the rest of the story (and the other books).
I went over parts with my parents, and the earliest versions of the first few chapters were read by my friends, all of whom gave me advice and critique to continue forward. After editing with my mom and getting an outside eye, I finally gave it the green flag and marked it as "done," even though, for sure, there can still be a lot of improvements to make.